Changing logicals on VMS?

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Mon Oct 2 23:56:50 2000

At 08:48 PM 10/2/00 -0700, Zane wrote:
> > On a somewhat related note, I went out and forked over $100 for a true 5
> > port switch so that I can put my VLC cluster on a switch!
>
>Cool! But, do you see any real benefit from this?

You bet, this "traffic" on the NI backbone doesn't interfere with each
other. So if one system is swapping on a cluster disk and another is just
doing telnet type access then they both "see" a full 10MBits of bandwidth.
The only time you get collisions is when two systems try to access the same
third party and the switch can often interleave those packets such that
there are way fewer collisions.

> > Now all I need is a console multiplexor.
>Any idea's? This is something I *REALLY* need.

Well its "easy" to do in a powered box. A few of the CMOS switches, a few
connectors, and you're done. I even figured I could switch it remotely by
using the DTR line coming up to "toggle" the next system. Thus running
something like HyperTerm and doing disconnect/reconnect type operations
would cycle through each console. My issue is that I'm trying to do it all
passively and that leads to some questions about tying lines together
before you break contact. (and mechanical switches are so much harder to
control). My "worst" idea is to use a "wall wart" type supply to bring
power to the switch box, second worst is to run a couple of lines off the
supply in the top VLC. I suspect its too much current to uses the "phantom
power" trick on the RS232 port.

--Chuck

(Of course if I want to be anal I can run all the consoles into the
harmonica box off a CXYA16 in the 4000/200 and use that machine as a
console server)
Received on Mon Oct 02 2000 - 23:56:50 BST